Contents

Fade in to the debris field left of the Mantle's Approach. Then cut to John, floating above Earth, not moving at all. A searchlight shines on John's body, who looks up slowly to see an approaching Pelican.

The Pelican's back door opens. Cut to aboard the Infinity, where SPARTAN-IVs and Marines stand in formation to await Master Chief. They turn and salute as John steps out of the Pelican. Cut to black.

Fade in to establishing shot of the Infinity. Cut to John standing at a window, looking down at Earth below. Thomas Lasky comes from behind.

Lasky: "Mind if I join you?"

John-117: (turns to see him) "Of course not, Sir."

Lasky: "At ease, Chief. It feels kind of odd for you to call me Sir."

The two face out towards Earth.

Lasky: "Beautiful, isn't she? I don't get to see her often enough. I grew up on New Harmony. Attended Corbulo Military Academy. Never saw Earth in person until I was an adult, but... I still think of her as home."

John says nothing. Lasky breaks their silence.

Lasky: "You don't talk much, do you? (John does not respond.) Chief, I won't pretend to know how you feel. I've lost peopleI care about, but... never anything like you're going through."

John-117: "Our duty, as soldiers, is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost."

Lasky: "You say that like soldiers and humanity are two different things. Soldiers aren't machines. We're just people."

Open on the city of New Phoenix. The sound of a Pelican can be heard in the distance.

Cut to within the deserted city. Smoke rises from piles of ashes on the streets and there are many abandoned cars.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "In this hour of victory, we taste only defeat. I ask why."

Two Pelicans fly over the street.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "We are Forerunners, guardians of all that exists. The roots of the galaxy have grown deep under our careful tending. Where there is life, the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil."

The Pelicans land. Several troops come out of the troop bay of one. They secure the area, but slow down to realize the city is empty. One of them examines a pile of ash on the ground with his instruments. He looks up and away in the horizon; the entire city population is dead.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "Our strength is a luminous sun towards which all intelligence blossoms. And the impervious shelter beneath which it has prospered."

Cut to John-117, slowly walking down a hallway in Infinity. Fade to black.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "I stand before you. Accused of the sin of ensuring Forerunner ascendancy. Of attempting to save us from this fate where we are forced to... recede..."

Fade to the SPARTAN-IV armory in Infinity. Numerous personnel and SPARTAN-IVs are seen below.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "Humanity stands as the greatest threat in the galaxy."

Cut to SPARTAN-IVs being armored by machines.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "Refusing to eradicate them is a fool's gambit."

Sarah Palmer and another S-IV who is running on a treadmill turn to see John. The running S-IV almost trips in the process.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "We squander eons in the darkness, while they seize our triumphs for their own."

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "The Mantle of Responsibility, for all things, belongs to Forerunners alone!"

John walks to one of the machines, prepared to take off his armor for the first time in years. Personnel and S-IVs in the area gather around his station and watch. Since he is too tall to fit inside the disarming machine, the technicians around him prepare to remove his armor manually.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "Think of my acts as you will."

The technicians free the bolts to his arm plates, allowing them to fall off.

Ur-Didact (voiceover): "But do not doubt the reality."

The machine frees John's chest plate, also allowing it to fall. The chest plate hits the floor with a loud thud.

John's helmet is lifted off. If the player has not yet beaten the game on Legendary, beneath the helmet there is only black. Once the player has beaten the game on Legendary, however, John's adult face is revealed for the first time. All that can be seen is his brow, cheekbones, and bridge of his nose, while his eyes are shadowed. Cut to black.

During the last cutscene, John is depicted as being roughly two feet taller than Sarah Palmer (6'9"), despite his canonical height of 7'2". As a result, he is too tall to enter the armor assembly/disassembly station, forcing a team of engineers to remove his armor manually. However, Paul DeMarco and Carlo Hoya (both 7'1") have no trouble using the same machines in the first episode of Spartan Ops.